


Lighting up the room

by RobinWritesChirps



Category: Black Friday − Team StarKid, Hatchetfield Universe - Team StarKid
Genre: Alternate Reality, Christmas Decorations, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27744211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinWritesChirps/pseuds/RobinWritesChirps
Summary: The Barnes-Foster-Houston household has just celebrated Thanksgiving… which means it’s time for Christmas preparations. Right now. What do you mean, it’s Black Friday?Family fluff a few years down the line, alternate reality where they’ve made a family and taken in the Foster girls. Combination of several holiday-themed Tumblr prompts I received.
Relationships: Becky Barnes/Tom Houston
Comments: 15
Kudos: 7





	Lighting up the room

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Black Friday, I hope you don’t buy anything at all, boycott capitalism on this evil day :)

Warm rays of sunlight were already veering through the windows when Tom woke up. Every muscle of his body stretched with satisfaction as he stirred himself well awake. A hand reached out to the other side of the bed, finding it empty. Had he slept so late? Thanksgiving had been such a bountiful meal, Becky and himself overdoing themselves to give the children a proper holiday and as much food as they could shove down their throats. He had indulged a little too much himself, he supposed, but the turkey coma had granted him the most restful night he could remember in many months. He smiled to himself even when his watch on the nightstand told him he was waking up well past the usual time and a clatter of laughter across the hall pulled him out of bed.

"Merry Christmas!" Several excited voices greeted him right as he passed the threshold to the living room.

Lex gave him a grin, shoving a Christmas hat onto his head. Tom didn’t always know her to have such a joyful spirit, though this was a surprise he was always glad to receive. Even before December had even started. This year marked her eighth holiday season right here at home with him and Becky.

"We thought you'd never wake up, dude," she told him. "The munchkins have been up for hours."

Rosie ran to Tom wearing a hat which must have been about the same size as his own, but almost drowning his young daughter's entire head underneath, who was still so small. She clutched her little arms around his leg and Tom chuckled, picking her up and kissing her round cheeks. The hat fell to the ground. They were all yet in their pajamas but as animated as ever as they went to and fro around the room with good cheer.

"I see everyone's up," he said. "And you've..."

"We’ve set up decorations!" Tim cried out.

Indeed the room was an explosion of all sorts of colors, chiefly red and green. Garlands everywhere, streamers the younger kids must have made themselves behind his back, for this was the first he was seeing this. Every doorway was adorned with small branches of mistletoe wrapped in a red ribbon bow, every surface covered with all the ornaments that had not fit on the tree already much too crowded.

"The tree looks… nice…"

Hannah was beaming with pride − always a good look on her. She and Tim seemed to have been the masterminds behind the operation and she took his arm to show him their handy work. Rosie’s eyes were bright with excitement as she tried to reach for the baubles, though Tom caught her little hands in his to stop her from topping over the tree if she were too eager. At three and a half years of age, this seemed to be the first time she was truly comprehending the spirit of the holidays. All that on a Black Friday.

"Yeah, we’ve used every last ornament we could find," Tim said, "Even the ones you keep hidden under the bed, Becky got those for us. Hey, how much pie did you eat last night cause you didn’t even stir once."

Tom laughed easily. He had been wondering if this conspiration of sudden Christmas assault had anything to do with his wife. As a child and teen, Becky had adored the holidays but as a woman, it had come to mean everything for her. A touch of happiness and warmth in their years apart, and comfort and family in the years since their reunion. Without each other, that time of the year would have been so painful, yet now that they had found one another once more, they made it better than best.

"Even the Hanukkah one," he pointed out, nodding at the garlands of six-pointed stars and dreidls his mother had passed onto him when he had moved out of the family home. "You’ve outdone yourselves."

"And wait till you see the cookies," Becky said from the kitchen’s doorway, peeking after hearing his voice. "I’ve had help."

Indeed, their son’s hands and face were covered with patches of flour that left a mark against Tom’s pajama pants when he trotted to beg for a hug.

"Daddy!" Nicholas cried with immense joy, "Come look, I frosted the cookies."

"How many damn hours have I been asleep?!"

But when he made to pass the threshold, Becky stopped him with a hand at his arm. She looked up and gave him a teasing grin as he glanced and noticed the object of her attention.

"I wonder where that mistletoe came from," he chuckled. He looked at the little girl in his arms who was nestling close to his chest. He signed his meaning to her as he spoke, gesturing at the branch. "Did you put that up there, baby?"

Rosie shook her head slowly, her thumb in her mouth. Still, Tom pressed a kiss on top of her hair, then pulled Becky in to kiss her as well but the girl protested and whimpered uncomfortably till Becky took her in her arms to soothe her. The jealousy she could occasionally feel with regards to Tom was only watched by Nicholas’s with Becky. Still, she calmed down and Tom took a good look at the several platters of cookies mother and son had baked together. The kitchen was sweet with their scent and he would have helped himself if he didn’t know that Becky would prefer him not to.

"So, Beck, you did these, right?" He asked, pointing at the more crudely decorated batch with uncertain lines, finger smudges and creative color combinations.

"No, _I_ did!"

He chuckled and messed with the boy’s hair. He would be turning five soon and had already been diligently working at learning Becky’s passion for baking. Tom was no particular sweet tooth, but the pride on his son’s face was as good as any treat. Becky put down Rosie so that her brother could show off to her his hard work, and gently warn her about eating them before the rest of the family.

"Hey," Lex called out, beckoning Tom and Becky towards the living room again secretively − Tom wondered how long the little ones’ resolve would last without supervision. "Hey, _I got it_ , okay?"

Becky sighed in relief as Lex showed her something on her phone.

"Oh, thank God!"

Tom frowned.

"What’d you get?" He asked.

Becky turned the phone screen towards him where Tom could see a picture of a very jolly, very red Santa Claus sitting on an armchair with two children on his lap.

"What…"

Becky bit her lip and took his hand between hers, toying with his fingers softly as she often did to cajole him into whatever she pleased. It often worked.

"You remember how we said we would do the Santa thing with the children?" She asked in a very low voice, so that said children would not hear.

Lex was smirking as if she had been expecting this exact conversation. Seizing her phone again, she went back to help Tim and Hannah at the decorations, which were done but expertly readjusted over and over for perfection.

"We’ve always done it," Tom said, not understanding. "Since Rosie was born and the boy could understand, we’ve done it, I don’t…"

She smiled so very softly, coyly, and kissed his knuckles to convince him. Suddenly the realization came and he sighed.

"Did you _actually_ get a Santa suit? I’ll look ridiculous."

"Momma," Nicholas asked very politely, startling them as he appeared from behind to tug at his mother’s sleeve, "Can Rosie and I please have a cookie?"

Becky dropped Tom’s hand to turn to the kids sitting there side by side, the picture of obedience. Sometimes, Tim said he wished they were a little less boring and Tom chided him for it. Still, there was no denying that the little ones had made in their short lifetimes much less chaos than Tim − or even Lex and Hannah when they were so inclined − did in any given week.

"Of course, honey," she told him, smiling. "Hey, how about you give one to everybody?"

"Oh, yeah!"

He dashed back into the kitchen, his sister in his trail, and came back holding a small pile of warm cookies which he distributed around the room and his older siblings praised him for how good they tasted. Finally, he gave one to Becky, one to Tom. She cracked hers in half and offered him the first taste, which he took right from her fingers with a grin, chewing with satisfaction.

"Excellent," he noted and cut his own cookie in half to share with her too. "Just perfect."

Even with the fridge packed with Thanksgiving leftovers, even if November wasn’t over yet, it seemed that the household had decided against all rational judgement that Christmas had started already. One month of the year, the house was taken up by the holiday spirit in a cloud of red and green, and the world seemed a little bit brighter. And if his wife and children wanted some more joy in their lives, even if it was early, even if the Santa costume looked silly and scratchy, who was Tom to deny their wishes?

**Author's Note:**

> Hey please leave a comment, even short and boring, it means the world!


End file.
